The invention relates generally to a method for creating puzzles, educational aids, signs, and other graphic designs and, more particularly, to a method for working letters having uniform styles into a chosen shape so as to identify and completely fill the shape.
Many educational and amusement devices combine letters, words, or pictures in various ways. Examples of such known educational and amusement devices are illustrated by U.S. Design Pat. No. 212,242 to Paulus that discloses an alphabet puzzle in which specially shaped letters fit together in a rectangle and by U.S. Pat. No. 280,878 to Stranders that discloses a picture sliced into a number of rectangular segments that each include a portion of the picture and one letter of a word describing the picture. The shapes of the segments are substantially unrelated to the shapes of the letters.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,477,322 to Degheri discloses a puzzle wherein irregularly shaped pieces fit together to form an outline of a figure, picture, or representation of an object. The puzzle pieces may each show letters, words, or parts of letters and words that, when the puzzle is assembled, form a sentence or word related to the figure or picture.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,491,164 to Dirckx discloses an educational device comprising a plurality of rectangular tabs. On one side of each tab is shown a fragment of a picture, and on the other side is shown one or more letters of various styles. When properly arranged, the picture described by the corresponding letters will be formed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,453,750 to Rapaport discloses an educational game comprising a plurality of pieces that can be assembled to form a figure, picture, or representation of an object. Each piece includes one or more attached letters that letters line up to form a word describing the figure or picture when the puzzle is properly assembled.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,512 to Burke discloses an interactive book puzzle in which each puzzle piece has a number on one side and a portion of a picture on the other side. Other puzzles and educational devices are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,256,100 to Bamberg; 3,873,096; 3,918,178 to Riley; and 4,361,328 to Stein et al., Australian Patent Specification No. 273,720 by Jurjans, Austrian Patent Specification No. 166770, and British Patent Specification No. 1,242,975 to Salaman. These conventional educational and amusement devices illustrate uses of images and corresponding words but fail to show a general method for designing images from uniform letters which name the images.